Waking Moments
by Chase Ling Ziao
Summary: A short story depicting what may have happened when Sano and Rinko where brought in the clinic after winning the battle against Team Marilyn where Rinko is possibly comatosed and Sano, dead tired and injured, clings on to a thinning hope that Rinko will wake up. Highlights friendship, sweetness. Has hand-holding, slight romance, not much fluff. R&R is appreciated as always :)


**Author's Note: **It started out supposedly as drabble but I got into it and so effort, time, etc., etc. and this piece was born.

Law of Ueki and its characters are copyrighted to Tsubasa Fukushi, the author and mangaka of the series. Seriously, dude. You rock.

This is a mere fan fiction to celebrate his characters, particularly Rinko Jerrard and Sano Seichiro. Enjoy.

_**DISCLAIMER:**_ I do not know what a coma feels like so I apologize beforehand if I may have hurt anyone or made it look too easy.

* * *

She didn't know how long she was out.

All she knew was the strange world she woke up in.

She took a deep breath and started to run.

Looking around, the fields stretched all around her, endless. After some time, it felt like a strange and incredible place to be in. Stranger still was that she didn't feel tired with all that running.

She kept on running.

Then, there was something in the distance, calling to her. It sounded awfully familiar too. What could it be? Each footfall she made was the only other sound she heard.

The sky seemed permanently grey but if she looked forward, a bright light in the horizon would appear.

She slowed down for a bit and saw the light dim.

She decided to keep running at her original pace, keeping the light brightly in her line of sight.

That familiar voice, that light, that was all she had right now. She was all by herself in all of this vastness.

It was tempting to just stop and lay down. She knows she could stop at any time. She knows she could rest and just stay in the grass where she was. She felt it was soft as it tickled her legs and arms as she ran through. She calculated in her head that she could weave a blanket and a tent in just a matter of minutes with all this grass around her.

She could set up camp. She could wait for someone to find her.

But she ran on.

The whole scene played out in her head. She would stop. She would make the best of what she had. She would look for She would live in comfort. She knows it was possible. She could stay where she knew and where she could survive. She figured she would probably keep wandering and surviving until she would come across another living being.

And yet, her hypercalculating mind also considered she might never find someone else.

She kept running, banking on her inability to tire.

Her mind said she had to figure it out. She only had the familiar sound, the bright horizon and herself to work with.

She focused her attention forward. It seems the familiar sound was getting louder.

_"...koooo...upppp..."_

Words? A voice? Was the sound a voice?

She had to be sure. She quickened her pace.

_"Rinkkkko...Riiiinko...eeeeease..."_

The horizon was getting brighter too. She ran even faster.

_"Pplease...please wakee...Giive..."_

It was getting clearer. And she was starting to recognize the sound. She willed herself to run even faster.

_"Wake up. Please."_

She was sure of it now. He was calling to her. She ran and ran and ran. Her pace was astounding, even for her.

_"Please wake up. Rinko, don't give up. Please wake up."_

She yelled out. She was here. She wasn't giving up. She was getting out of here.

_"Please wake up. Rinko, can you hear me? Please, for our sakes, wake up. Wake up!"_

She yelled out again. She was getting there. She was...running as fast as she could. She was.

She wasn't getting anywhere. She was just running.

_"Rinkoo...Waake uppp..."_

She slowed down, thinking why she wasn't getting anywhere and how it was just as good as staying put. What was wrong?

_"Don'tttt giiive...upppp...Pleeeease.."_

She slowed down and stopped completely. She couldn't contain this overwhelming sensation of hopelessness.

The sky became grey again. The horizon dimmed. The voice resumed its echoing, obscure quality.

Why couldn't she? She was already running very fast. She was running faster than she thought possible. She was running faster than she thought. She thought.

She thought.

She thought she did.

She thought.

She closed her eyes, and thought hard.

_"...iiiinkoooo...meee..."_

Her eyes shot open, her ears strained to listen to the voice again.

Was it sounding sad? Was it crying? Was he crying?

She yelled out again. What was she to do? How was she to able to get out? How on earth did he expect her to get out by her own means when she can't even figure it out?

_"...eeease..."_

She got up, crying as she yelled into the vastness once more. She yelled her heart out, her fear, her want but inability to escape. She cried out his name, hoping he would hear her somehow.

Then she fell on her knees, playing out the rest of her inevitable fate stuck in the grey vastness in her head. The moment came when her memories of her 15 year-old life floated in and out of clarity, like blinking fireflies.

The God Battles, her so-called friends, her real friends, Robert Haydn...the memory that stayed clear to her the longest was of him. His head with a towel, the scar over his left eye, the excited look on his face whenever an opponent was in front of him, all of it. All of him. It stayed with her long enough to ignite a flame inside her.

This flame was like when she realized she could save Robert. It was like when Ueki was in danger and she had wanted to save him. It was like when she first saw Sano and subsequently called him out for his reckless behavior.

It was that one thing she hadn't realized when she was running like the wind earlier. She only thought she was incredibly fast.

She needed to go faster.

She could go faster. She could try.

Wiping the tears from her face, she opened her eyes clearly again. She rose with determination and the flame glowing brightly inside of her.

She crouched down, readying a sprinter's stance. She let her hair loose and focused her attention to the horizon.

In a heartbeat she shot off like a bullet.

_"...Pleeeeease...ussssss..."_

The sky was still grey. The grass was temptingly soft. But she ran on.

_"...Dooon't...giiiivee...upppp..."_

She ran faster, her hands slicing through the air in front of her. The horizon was getting brighter.

_"...Rinko..."_

She wasn't getting tired but she found herself breathing quickly. Her heartbeat was increasing its tempo, faster than her soles hit the ground. Was she apprehensive about this? Was she afraid it might not work? Yes. But she has nothing left to lose.

_"Doon't leeavee usss."_

She leaned forward, knowing she could trip but she pushed the thought back to the recesses of her mind. With every step, she thrust her legs further than before. Her hair became a purple streak behind her.

_"Waake up, Riinko. Pleasee wake upp."_

The horizon was starting to blind her. The voice, his voice was getting louder and clearer. It was as if he was shouting to her from only a few feet away.

_"Rinko!"_

She let out a mighty yell, echoing as she ran the rest of her path to the horizon. The light was so bright she had to close her eyes. She put all her energy and focus into each bound and each step forward. She was faster than she thought.

She just had to let go.

Everything. Her eyes closed, her heart beating furiously, every breath fanning the flame inside her, she stayed on her path, running into the blinding light. The flame spread throughout her body, bringing with it the familiar feeling of freedom. It was a good feeling to have once again.

She let it flow. She ran, tears escaping her closed eyes but her heart filled with that newfound energy. She couldn't help but smile.

She let it go.

She ran the fastest that her body, mind and soul could fuel her.

She flew into the horizon.

* * *

He held her bandaged hand in his own bandaged hands. He was talking to her all the while, fighting back the tears that started to pool since they were both checked into the clinic for recovery.

It didn't help that the nurse said that Rinko was either in a deep sleep or a coma.

"Rinko, please don't give up. Please, for our sakes. Wake up, Rinko."

No one else from their team was around. They had their own injuries to attend to and were placed in separate wards. Team Marilyn really beat the crap out of them but no one blamed each other. They were caught by surprise too.

"Please don't leave us."

He dared to place a hand on her face, taking care not to disturb the unearthly Heaven-made sustaining apparatus affixed to her by the nurses to aid her recovery. He wanted to make sure she was still warm.

He pushed a stray strand of hair out of her face.

"Don't give up, Rinko. Wake up, please."

This would count as day three since winning the challenge against Team Marilyn. Sano had been hearing all about Rinko's diagnostic reports and over the past few days, he was disappointed in himself for letting his hope thin out as well. He was occassionally told off by the nurses whenever they found him out of bed and reading to her or holding her hand. They told him he shouldn't involve himself too much in the healing process that Rinko was undergoing. Of course, he didn't listen and continued to attend to her much like now.

Only, it was getting harder and harder to keep it up. But he musn't. Only he was there for her right now. Everyone else couldn't be there.

He had to keep hoping.

And so he speaks to her whenever the nurses weren't around. He chats her up even if only to be answered by silence or her steady breathing.

He thumbed her palm for the last time that evening and then turned to settle back in his own bed. But as he turned away, the apparatus supporting Rinko started beeping rapidly. He rushed by her bedside and looked at her intently, searching for any changes that might be causing this to happen.

Her breathing mask was fogging up. Her chest was rising up and down very evidently. He saw that beads of sweat were forming on the sides of her face. With the quickness of his scanning, he saw that her fingers were twitching.

Swallowing his own uncertainty, he carefully held her hand in his once more. He himself was trembling but he had to focus on Rinko now. He watched it twitching a while before gently lacing their fingers and cupping his other hand around. He could almost feel her fingers close a bit around his own. Then he heard a most unusual sound.

"-am-"

It was a quiet sound, almost a squeak. Could it have come from her? He then watched her face intently.

Her eyes started to tense up, as if she were closing them hard. His eyes grew wide. Was she going to wake up now? The seconds felt like hours as he watched her closely.

"Here!"

Her eyes flew open accompanied with a small gasp and her first word in reply to Sano. Her fingers then clenched tightly in Sano's hands. She squinted a bit, adjusting to the brightness of the room and trying to focus on the face in front of her. Once she recognized who it was, she gave him a small smile.

"Here. *pant* Here I am."

She spoke each word with heavy breaths, as if she ran a marathon. Sano's tears finally escaped from his eyes. He brought Rinko's hand to his forehead as he tried to hide his sobby face that showed relief and let out his sorrow.

"Sano? Why are you crying?"

Rinko asked gently at first but she soon saw that this was no ordinary kind of crying. He continued to sob, albeit a little louder this time. The sounds he was making were indiscernable as laughing or crying. She grew concerned.

"Hey! What's the matter? Are you okay? Answer me, Sano!"

The nurses suddenly came into the room, alerted by a remote signal from the healing apparatus. They saw two and subsequently pried the crying Sano away from a newly-awakened Rinko.

Later, after a dose of a calming substance, their regularly scheduled medication, a change of bandages, and a stern talking-to directed at Sano, he and Rinko lay awake in their respective beds, staring at the ceiling.

"You okay now, Sano?"

He replied with an affirmative sound. He sheepishly asked her to make sure that whatever happened a few hours ago stayed between them. Rinko, ever kind Rinko, agreed with a chuckle. She then told him the dream she had while asleep. She had been running as fast as she could. She said she almost gave up.

"Until I heard your voice."

He had almost forgetten what she said when she woke up. Now he realized she was calling back to him. He turned away from Rinko, failing to suppress a small laugh of relief. She smiled when she heard it. He let out a big yawn, clearly tired from the calming substance and the rush of adrenaline earlier.

"So I take it you won't be sleeping tonight?"

"I think I'll be reading instead. Thank you for the book, Sano."

He then sat up and brightened up the room for her. Then he settled back down on his bed.

"*yawn* Would you mind reading the book aloud until I fall asleep?"

Rinko agreed. As he settled down and snuck glances at her, he saw she opened the book to exactly where he had left off. He let himself relax to the dear sound of his friend's voice.

The End.


End file.
